Robinhood aims to boost tokenized stock market cap as US equity access expands globally

Robinhood just launched its own public blockchain and immediately used it to do something the traditional finance world has been talking about for years: let people around the globe trade tokenized versions of US stocks around the clock. The catch? If you’re actually in the US, you can’t use it.

Robinhood Chain, a public mainnet built on Arbitrum, went live on July 1, 2026, bringing with it a new product called Stock Tokens. These tokens track the performance of over 200 US stocks and ETFs and are available in more than 120 jurisdictions. Analysts at Token Terminal suggest that a successful global rollout could triple the market capitalization of tokenized stocks on Robinhood Chain.

What Stock Tokens actually are (and aren’t)

These aren’t actual shares of Apple or Tesla sitting in your brokerage account. Stock Tokens are debt securities issued by Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited, a subsidiary based in Jersey. They’re designed to mirror the price performance of underlying US equities and ETFs.

What you do get is 24/7 trading and integration with decentralized finance platforms. That means these tokens can theoretically be used as collateral, plugged into lending protocols, or composed with other DeFi instruments.

The initial roster includes over 200 US stocks and ETFs, plus some select private names available through the Robinhood Wallet.

The US exclusion and its implications

The most notable absence from that 120+ jurisdiction list is the United States itself. It’s worth noting that this isn’t Robinhood’s first venture into tokenized assets. The company launched token offerings in Europe during 2025, effectively using that market as a testing ground before this broader rollout.

CEO Vlad Tenev has framed the expansion as part of a broader on-chain finance vision that also encompasses AI-agent trading developments.

Market reaction and competitive landscape

Robinhood’s stock (HOOD) surged roughly 7.5% following the announcement.

By building on Arbitrum, Robinhood inherits Ethereum’s security guarantees while keeping transaction costs low. Projects like Backed Finance and Dinari have been operating in the tokenized stock space, but none bring Robinhood’s scale or mainstream credibility.

The risk is that these remain debt instruments rather than actual equity. In a scenario where Robinhood Assets (Jersey) Limited faces financial distress, token holders would be creditors, not shareholders.

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